*waves heartily*
Hello friendly A to Z blog challenge participants and followers! 
P is for Paper or Plastic? How do you prefer to read and write?
Do you like the feel of a paperback in your hands, the way you can riff the pages to a random point in the story, or watch how the the novel progresses from your right hand to your left? Do you dog-ear the top of the page where you left off? Do you have a special bookmark to hold your place, or will any ol’ slip of paper do?
Do you prefer e-reading all your books? Do you like having your entire library in the palm of your hand? Do you find the convenience of instant purchase and download better suited to your needs than trudging down to the store or waiting on delivery?
For me, I find I definitely prefer the tactile experience of reading, of skimming my fingertips along the cover, holding the words in my hands and breathing in the essence of book.
I have a NOOK, the small black and white version, and while I enjoy the immediacy of downloading a novel, I still miss pinching the right side of an open paperback to gauge how much story is left. 
How about the writers out there, do you write your stories using paper and pen? Do you like the way the pulp soaks up the ink, or the way your writing utensil embosses the page with your penmanship?
Or do you prefer the speed of typing, of clickity clicking away on the keyboard while the idea flows from your mind to your fingertips?
My writing style varies with each project.
I find I always start with pen and paper. Something about the pace of hand writing as well as the permanence of pen on paper seems to encourage my ideas to flow. There’s no DELETE key with pen (only scratch outs, but I can still read through those, hehe!), no COMMAND S to worry about with saving a document. Just me, my pen and the blank paper before me waiting for the transfer of thoughts and ideas.
But! With as much as I love the fluidity of expression that paper provides me, I inevitably end up on my little netbook to type of the first draft, hehe!
So, how about you guys? What’s your reading and writing preference? Paper or plastic? 
Before my Kindle I had a Palm Reader. I guess I’m all plastic.
hehehe! I do enjoy my little black and white nook, the square one feels more like a book in my hands than the tablet does, and I like that the screen isn’t back lit, too. Looks like I’m a little plastic, too, hehe!
Thanks, Em!
I haven’t got a Kindle. Its not just the fact that I like the feel of a paperback, and seeing how much progress I’ve made in it, and having it on my bedside cabinet, or desk, waiting to be picked up. I also like trawling through second-hand bookshops and my local library. I like having to go to some effort to get that next gem. That’s one of the reasons I like libraries. I recently got a book out that I’d ordered from the County Store (where all the retired books go), and it was fun to read all the stamps in the front and see everywhere its been since 1982! Reading is such a shared experience that way.
However, I mostly write on my laptop. Its just quicker. I do write by hand sometimes – I stay in practice by writing letters to friends and relations – but its so much slower. The one advantage it does have though is the lack of distraction. I usually handwrite a story when the internet is sucking all my writing time away and I just need to turn the laptop off to get away
Oh yes, Louise. I couldn’t get along well if I didn’t have pen and paper to at least begin my stories with
and I totes agree with you – I really like being able to flip pages or feel how the weight of the story transfers from one hand to the next. I definitely prefer paperbacks (as my shelves here would indicate, hehehe!) but my nook is convenient for shoving in my purse.
And oh my gosh, I love the history of books like that, who held this? what did they think when they read this part? wow, such a powerful connection, IMHO. You are so right, “reading is a shared experience that way”
All of the above! I use Kindle and Nook apps, download from Smashwords, get PDFs, and happily read both hardbacks and paperbacks that I’ve purchased or borrowed from the library. It’s not either/or. It’s what’s most convenient for me at the moment.
Writing is mostly the same. I like brainstorming with paper and pen. I’ve tried mind-mapping programs, and they just don’t feel organic enough. I also like to do some freewriting by hand in the mornings to jog loose the details of what I’ll be typing in later in the day — it really helps to up my word count when I do sit down at the computer. I’ve written short stories by hand, and the occasional scene for a book, and I’ve even typed things up on my iPod when nothing else was handy.
I’m a reader, and I’m a writer. The tools don’t matter.
Erin, hehe! We’re kindred spirits
I thoroughly enjoy mapping out my stories on paper first and YES! I’ve used my iPhone to jot down notes, basically, whatever I have at hand that I can relay my thoughts on, hehe! omgosh, I love your last line “I’m a reader and a I’m a writer. The tools don’t matter.” <3 
As a reader, I like both. My Kindle makes it too prohibitive to skim ahead to the “good parts” so I tend to read the stories without spoilage. A paper/hardback allows me to more easily re-read my favorite sections or double-check something I either missed or misunderstood so the rest of my reading goes fine. I buy both formats, usually with price and availability being the determining factor.
Writing…I much prefer my computer but am not averse to using paper and pen.
Yes! The re-read! See, that’s what I enjoy about a paperback, too! If I’ve already read it, then I can jump to any section I want, or if I’m like “where was that one part where the character did such and such?” Well, in a paperback I can do that a lot easier than I can with my NOOK.
I’ve had to start instituting a rule, something like, any book over a certain number of pages goes on the NOOK, strictly considering shelf space here, hehe!
And yup, I prefer the computer for composing my final drafts.